Little more than a month after hosting three guitar legends (Pizzarelli, Alden and Bruno), the Mainstay brings another of the world’s great jazz guitarists, Martin Taylor, to their intimate stage in Rock Hall on Saturday May 11 at 8:00 p.m. Admission is $20. For information and reservations call the Mainstay at 410-639-9133. Information is also available at the Mainstay’s website https://www.mainstayrockhall.org.
Martin Taylor is a multi-award winning guitarist from the UK known mostly for his works as a solo, fingerstyle jazz guitarist. Acoustic Guitar magazine calls him ‘THE Acoustic Guitarist of his Generation’. He dazzles audiences with his solo shows, which combine virtuosity, emotion, humor, and a strong stage presence. This concert is another in the Mainstay’s David Pike memorial Jazz Series.
Taylor has garnered two honorary doctorates, a BBC lifetime achievement award, Top 10 albums in both the USA and Europe and a record 14 British Jazz Awards. In 2002 he was appointed MBE ‘For Services to Jazz Music’ by Her Majesty the Queen. While he is recognized for his peerless work as a solo guitarist, he has also collaborated with major artists such as Stephane Grappelli, Jeff Beck, Tommy Emmanuel, Bill Wyman, Chet Atkins, David Grisman, Dianne Schuur and Gary Burton.
Pat Metheny said, “Martin Taylor is one of the most awesome solo guitar players in the history of the instrument. He’s unbelievable,” and from Jeff Beck: “He out-shreds all of us put together… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He spends much of the year travelling the world, playing in concert halls in Europe, North America, Japan, Asia, and Australasia as well as presiding over the innovative Martin Taylor Guitar Academy online.
Taylor was born in Harlow, Essex, in 1956. At the age of four he received his first guitar from his father, bassist William ‘Buck’ Taylor. His father frequently played the music of the Quintette du Hot Club de France and Taylor was inspired by their legendary guitarist Django Reinhardt. By age 8 he was playing regularly in his father’s band.
He quit school at 15, intent on becoming a professional musician. He played in bands, in holiday camps, various radio shows and on cruise ships. Jazz guitarist Ike Isaacs took him under his wing. They performed as a duet and Isaacs started him on the road to developing his unique fingerstyle technique.
It was through Isaacs that Taylor was introduced to Stephane Grappelli, who had been the violinist in Quintette du Hot Club de France with Django Reinhardt. When one of Grappelli’s regular band members sustained an injury, Taylor was invited to substitute for a few European dates. Suitably impressed, Grappelli invited him to join his band full-time. He accepted and performed and recorded with Grapelli for the next eleven years, occupying the position once held by his idol Reinhardt.
His success with Grappelli allowed him to reduce his other commitments and relocate to Scotland where he still lives. It also allowed him to tour North America regularly which gave him a new audience and allowed him to get to know musicians such as Chet Atkins and David Grisman, with whom he would both record.
By the early 90s, Taylor was performing solo and had a recording contract with Scottish label Linn Records. Primarily a manufacturer of high-end audio equipment, Linn felt that Taylor’s intimate and intricate style and unique tone would ably demonstrate the quality of their equipment.
His most recent recordings have been collaborations: 2012’s “First Time Together!” (with Frank Vignola and David Grisman) and 2013’s The Colonel and the Governor (with Tommy Emmanuel).
Write a Letter to the Editor on this Article
We encourage readers to offer their point of view on this article by submitting the following form. Editing is sometimes necessary and is done at the discretion of the editorial staff.